Margaux Hemingway | |
|---|---|
_(cropped2).jpg) Hemingway in 1976 | |
| Born | Margot Louise Hemingway (1954-02-16)February 16, 1954 Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | July 1, 1996(1996-07-01) (aged 42) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Ketchum Cemetery,Ketchum, Idaho, U.S. 43°41′13″N114°22′00″W / 43.686806°N 114.366668°W /43.686806; -114.366668 |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1972–1996 |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] |
| Spouses | |
| Father | Jack Hemingway |
| Relatives | Mariel Hemingway (sister) Ernest Hemingway (paternal grandfather) Hadley Richardson (paternal grandmother) |
Margaux Louise Hemingway (bornMargot Louise Hemingway; February 16, 1954 – July 1, 1996)[a] was an American fashion model and actress. The granddaughter of writerErnest Hemingway, she gained independent fame as asupermodel in the 1970s, appearing on the covers of magazines includingCosmopolitan,Elle,Harper's Bazaar,Vogue, andTime.
She signed a million-dollar contract withFabergé Inc. as the spokesmodel for Babe perfume. Her later years were marred by highly publicized episodes of addiction and depression, before hersuicide from a drug overdose around July 1, 1996, at the age of 42.
Margot Louise Hemingway was born February 16, 1954, inPortland, Oregon, the second of three daughters born to Byra Louise (née Whittlesey) andJack Hemingway (eldest child of writer Ernest Hemingway). When she learned that she was named after the wineChâteau Margaux, which her parents drank on the night she was conceived, she changed the spelling from "Margot" to "Margaux" to match.[5] She had two sisters, actressMariel Hemingway and Joan (nicknamed Muffet).
During her childhood, the family moved from Oregon toCuba, where her grandfather had lived,[5] then toSan Francisco, and later toIdaho, where they lived on her grandfather's farm inKetchum, adjacent toSun Valley. The family took trips each summer back to Oregon with the daughters' godmother, who owned a farm inSalem.[10] She attended theCatlin Gabel School in Portland for her junior year.[11]
Margaux struggled with several disorders beginning in her teenage years, including alcoholism, depression,bulimia, andepilepsy. With her permission, a video recording was made of her therapy session related to her bulimia, and it was broadcast on television. She also haddyslexia. In the 1990s, Margaux reported that she had been sexually abused by her father as a child.[12][13] In 2013, her younger sister Mariel said in the documentaryRunning from Crazy that both Margaux and their older sister Muffet had been sexually abused by their father.[14]
Hemingway was 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and had success as a model, including her million-dollar contract withFabergé as the spokesmodel for Babe perfume in the 1970s.[15] This was the first million-dollar contract ever awarded to a fashion model.[1] She also appeared on the covers ofCosmopolitan,Elle,Harper's Bazaar, andVogue, as well as on the June 16, 1975, cover ofTIME, which dubbed her one of the "new beauties".[16] The September 1, 1975, cover issue ofVogue called Hemingway "New York's New Supermodel".[17]
During the height of her modeling career in the mid- to late 1970s, Hemingway was a regular attendee of New York City's exclusivediscothèqueStudio 54, often in the company of such celebrities asHalston,Bianca Jagger,Liza Minnelli,Grace Jones, andAndy Warhol. At such social mixers, she began to use alcohol and drugs.[1]
Hemingway made her film debut in theLamont Johnson-directedrape and revenge filmLipstick (1976), alongside her 14-year-old sister Mariel, andAnne Bancroft. In it, she plays a fashion model who is terrorized by a rapist. The film's violent depiction of rape led it to be labeled anexploitation film, though in later years it had success as acult film.[18]
She followed this with a supporting role in the Italian horror filmKiller Fish (1979), oppositeLee Majors andKaren Black. Her following project was the comedyThey Call Me Bruce? in 1982. In 1984, Hemingway had a supporting part inOver the Brooklyn Bridge, oppositeElliott Gould andShelley Winters. After a skiing accident in 1984, Hemingway gained 75 pounds (34 kg), ending up at nearly 200 lb (91 kg), and became increasingly depressed. In 1987, she checked into theBetty Ford Center.[19]
Attempting to make a comeback, she appeared on the cover ofPlayboy in May 1990, and asked the magazine to hireZachary Selig as the creative director for her cover story. It was shot inBelize.[20] Despite her attempts, Hemingway's budding film career began to falter, and she took roles in several B-movies, includingKilling Machine (1984) andInner Sanctum (1991).[21]
Hemingway continued to support herself by appearing in a small number ofdirect-to-video films into the 1990s, autographing her nude photos fromPlayboy, and endorsing a psychic telephone hotline owned by her cousin, Adiel Hemingway. Shortly before her death, she was set to host the outdoor adventure seriesWild Guide on theDiscovery Channel.[13]
Hemingway's first marriage, to Errol Wetson (Wetanson), ended in divorce. They met when, at age 19, she accompanied her father to thePlaza Hotel in New York City on a business trip. Four months later she moved from Idaho to New York City to live with Wetson at 12East 72nd Street, which was owned by heiressGloria Vanderbilt.[citation needed]
On New Year's Eve 1979, Hemingway married French filmmaker Bernard Faucher inKetchum, and they lived in Paris for a year.[22] She divorced him in 1985 aftersix years.[20]
Hemingway had strained relationships with members of her family. She had a tense relationship with her mother, though they reconciled prior to Byra's death from cancer in 1988. She also competed with her younger sister Mariel, who received greater accolades for her acting. In the 1990s, Hemingway alleged that her father, Jack, had molested her as a child. Her father and stepmother, Angela, resented the allegations and stopped speaking to her. Angela toldPeople magazine, "Jack and I did not talk to her for two years. She constantly lies. The whole family won't have anything to do with her. She's nothing but an angry woman."[13]
A 2013 television documentary filmRunning from Crazy, in which Margaux's sister Mariel speaks of the Hemingway family history of alcoholism, drug addiction, molestation, and suicide, contains clips filmed by Margaux.[23]
On July 1, 1996, Hemingway was found dead in her studio apartment inSanta Monica. Her body was badly decomposed,[24] and the precise date of death could not be determined. The autopsy report and California death records therefore list July 1 as her date of death.[a] She had taken an overdose ofphenobarbital, according to theLos Angeles Countycoroner's toxicology report one month later,[25] although her family had difficulty accepting the fact of her suicide.[1]
Hemingway was interred at the Hemingway family plot at Ketchum Cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho.[26]
Mariel Hemingway's husband toldPeople in 1996 that, "This [year] was the best I'd seen [Margaux] in years. She had gotten herself back together",[27] but in a December 2005 episode ofLarry King Live, Mariel said she now accepted her sister's death as a suicide.[28]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Lipstick | Christine McCormick | |
| 1979 | Killer Fish | Gabrielle | Alternative title:Naked Sun |
| 1982 | They Call Me Bruce? | Karmen | |
| 1984 | Over the Brooklyn Bridge | Elizabeth Anderson | |
| 1984 | Killing Machine | Jacqueline | Alternative title:Goma-2 |
| 1987 | Portami la luna | Television movie | |
| 1991 | Inner Sanctum | Anna Rawlins | |
| 1992 | La donna di una sera | Ellen Foster | US title:Woman's Secret |
| 1992 | Bad Love | Jackie | |
| 1992 | Deadly Rivals | Agent Linda Howerton | Credited as Margot Hemingway |
| 1994 | Double Obsession | Heather Dwyer | Distributed byColumbia TriStar. Produced byEduardo Montes-Bradley |
| 1994 | Inner Sanctum II | Anna Rawlins | |
| 1994 | Frame-Up II: The Cover-Up | Jean Searage | Alternative title:Deadly Conspiracy |
| 1995 | Vicious Kiss | Lisa | |
| 1995 | A comme acteur | ||
| 1996 | Dangerous Cargo | Julie | |
| 1996 | Backroads to Vegas | Television movie |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
